Dirty Linen #103

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #103 (December 2002 / January 2003). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Another view of the laundry

In his letter printed in Issue #101, Mark Jones stated:
"Although I am a subscriber who loves folk and world music traditions, I rarely find any article worth reading because they often pertain to European or Canadian fiddle and/or accordion groups, or minor league folk singers, who don't interest me. I only subscribe for the CD reviews...."

In the following issue two more readers wrote in to express their support of Jones' viewpoint. I don't know if these letters reflect the sentiment of any sizable constituency of DL's readership, but I can tell you that they sure don't represent me or any of my many friends who are DL readers and subscribers.

I, for one, have nothing but admiration for the editor and staff of this fine publication. It's no easy task for a small, low-budget magazine — with very limited resources — to provide quality, even-handed coverage of the incredible variety of diverse musical forms, commonly lumped together under the hopelessly broad heading of "folk and world music." Yet, somehow, they manage to do it — issue after issue.

Of course, I don't always agree with the choice of subject matter for feature articles or the slant of some reviews. And, yes, I would love to see more column space devoted to my own musical preferences — which, for the record, include "fiddle and/or accordion groups." Yet, I fully appreciate and support DL's policy of giving exposure to current folk and world music performers, regardless of genre... especially those who are ignored by mainstream music journalists. The work of those featured may not be my mug of beer (sorry to say, I have little or no interest in the whole "singer/songwriter" genre — including many of the "idiosyncratic innovators" from the 60s and 70s touted by Mr. Jones), but, as a musician myself, I naturally empathize with these performers' efforts and struggles to put their music out to a broader audience. That said, I heartily laud DL's ecumenical coverage — and refusal to cater to any one segment of the Folk World— as a vital service to all the various folk and world music communities.

Keep up the good work!

— Shlomo Pestcoe (Brooklyn, NY)
(via email)

Record straightening

As a sometime writer myself, I know how hard it can be to accurately sum up a subject's statements from notes taken at an interview, so it need not be interpreted as a sign of displeasure with Opal Nations' article about me [Dirty Linen #101] if I need to set the record straight on a few points. When I talked about aspiring to be "hot" as opposed to virtuosic, I didn't make the implication that a musician shouldn't work towards mastery of his/her instrument. I meant to say that in the course of trying to develop musically, I found myself working in areas that virtuosic players don't seem aware of, because the focus is different. Also, the comment about wanting to excel in different styles is worded strangely. I was trying to say that my aspiration is to really enter into the styles of music I perform, and not just skim the surface. Nor would I make quite such a bald and arrogant statement as that 90% of acoustic music is meaningless. The context was about a conversation with an editor of a guitar magazine to the effect that 90% of the new guitarists I hear seem to be unaware of a limitless number of wonderful things to try on the instrument but are caught up searching in fairly fruitless fields.

Among other minor inaccuracies, my relationship with the great jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd only dates back a few years, it was Allen, not Alan, Gay, who played with me in teenage bands, some of which featured Lynn Abbott on drums, not guitar, as listeners who have heard him with Bruce Daigrepont in recent years would expect. I doubt that anyone cares much, but when my family moved back to Virginia in 1956, it was to Richmond, not Richmond County, the faux-Gypsy fiddler who inspired me as a child was in 1954 rather than '61, and the Brahms recital referred to finished me with classical music, not the fiddle. I didn't master Merle Travis style fingerpicking as a teenager, in fact, I'd hesitate to say that I ever have, but did quickly get the hang of the pattern-style picking that was mistakenly called Travis style in those days. Again, I doubt if many would notice, but the chronology of my moves, associations, and influences in the 60s and 70s is pretty garbled. Thom Keats is a San Francisco-based guitarist whom I met on moving there in 1973, and the bluegrass band I played in was also in SF, not Virginia. My first record for Kicking Mule was There's Something for Everyone in America, not The King of Bongo Bong, which was third. And lastly, Sandy Denny had left the address near Parsons Green in London (and where, coincidentally enough, I am writing this) well before I moved in in 1977. Our ex-landlady, Linda Fitzgerald-Moore, remains, however.

Thanks for letting me address these details.

— Duck Baker (via email)

Tall(e)ying the score

I recently read an artcle about my good friend James Talley. I just wanted to make a correction. In the article [Dirty Linen #102] you stated that he used "Austin musicians" on the CD. Far from the truth. Only the bass player was from Austin. The rest (fiddle, drums, guitar, steel guitar, etc.) were from San Antonio and Floresville and were the same bunch that recorded Doug Sahm's last album.

— Bobby Flores (via email)